Nebraska Farm Bureau has offered the United States Department
of Agriculture (USDA) a series of recommendations to reform the way beef cattle
are marketed. The underlying concept of Farm Bureau’s suggestions are to create
a more transparent and value-based system that would more closely link the
prices farmers and ranchers receive for their cattle to the value of beef
products sold at the wholesale and retail levels. Nebraska Farm Bureau
President Steve Nelson shared the recommendations with U.S. Secretary of
Agriculture Sonny Perdue in an October 2 letter.

“With only four major meatpackers, many Nebraska cattle
producers have expressed concerns about the level of control that exists within
the consolidated meat packing industry, specifically in the way of packer
captive supplies of cattle and the diminishing cash market for live cattle. We
believe reexamining the cattle pricing system and moving toward one where
cattle prices and cattle contract prices are discovered under a more
transparent and value-based system would be beneficial in addressing producer concerns
and allow the cattle market to better respond to actual supply and demand
conditions,” said Steve Nelson, Nebraska Farm Bureau president.

Beef producers’ concerns about the potential for
anti-competitive actions in cattle markets heightened after a July fire at a
Tyson meat processing facility in Holcomb, Kan. with producers seeing prices
paid for cattle drop while meatpackers made significant profits. Nebraska Farm
Bureau had urged, and USDA stepped forward, in investigating the situation
under the powers given to the agency under the federal Packers and Stockyards
Act; the long-standing legislation targeted to eliminating anti-competitive
measures in livestock markets.

“We have no preconceived outcome in mind for the Packers
and Stockyards investigation and our state’s cattle producers are grateful USDA
is doing its due diligence. However, we believe the best way to address real or
perceived manipulation concerns is to move to a value discovery system that
more closely links what cattle producers receive for the beef they produce and
the value of that product as it nears the end consumer,” said Nelson.

Nebraska Farm Bureau’s recommendations to USDA for
changes under the Packers and Stockyards Act include: